Understanding the impact of e-commerce on last-mile light goods vehicle activity in urban areas: The case of London

Abstract

Growth in e-commerce has led to increasing use of light goods vehicles for parcel deliveries in urban areas. This paper provides an insight into the reasons behind this growth and the resulting effort required to meet the exacting delivery services offered by e-retailers which often lead to poor vehicle utilisation in the last-mile operation, as well as the duplication of delivery services in urban centres as competitors vie for business. A case study investigating current parcel delivery operations in central London identified the scale of the challenge facing the last-mile parcel delivery driver, highlighting the importance of walking which can account for 62% of the total vehicle round time and 40% of the total round distance in the operations studied. The characteristics of these operations are in direct conflict with the urban infrastructure which is being increasingly redesigned in favour of walking, cycling and public transport, reducing the kerbside accessibility for last-mile operations. The paper highlights other pressures on last-mile operators associated with managing seasonal peaks in demand; reduced lead times between customers placing orders and deliveries being made; meeting delivery time windows; firsttime delivery failure rates and the need to manage high levels of product returns. It concludes by describing a range of initiatives that retailers and parcel carriers, sometimes in conjunction with city authorities, can implement to reduce the costs associated with last-mile delivery, without negatively impacting on customer service levels.

Last mile delivery by drones: an estimation of viable market potential and access to citizens across European cities

“…These analyses, however do not take into account the clear benefit brought by drones in removing vehicles from the road. This could lead to potentially significant reduction of congestion and travel time especially in the most densely populated areas where last-mile delivery associated with eCommerce services has increased the contribution of LCVs to road traffic [43]. Studies commissioned by the European Commission, identify challenges, issues and possible solutions for UFD and logistics [44] including drone operations in residential areas [45].…”

Tackling Fragmented Last Mile Deliveries to Nanostores by Utilizing Spare Transportation Capacity—A Simulation Study

“…Companies whose primary business is providing a service rather than transporting goods mostly use vans [1,22,42]. Service-related trips are increasing with a growing services sector [43].…”

“…Service-driven companies vary from sole proprietorships to large companies operating a lot of vehicles in an extensive network. The bottom line in both cases is that vehicle-related movement remains largely ignored and is difficult to capture [1,22,42].…”

“…This is particularly driven by the problematic nature of supplying goods in dense urban areas, where a large proportion of the last mile takes place (i.e., urban freight transport). The majority of goods are distributed by motorized road vehicles, mostly (small) trucks and vans [1,2]. Compared to passenger transport, freight contributes disproportionately to negative side effects of transport in cities.…”

ICT for Sustainable Last-Mile Logistics: Data, People and Parcels

“…deciding on parking and unloading restrictions), while carriers have a direct interest in where they can stop to make their deliveries as quickly as possible without incurring penalties for illegal parking (UPS incurred $17m in parking fines from their vehicles operating in New York, USA in 2016 [30]). Recent parcel carrier surveys have shown that more than half of their round time can be spent with drivers walking whilst their vehicles are parked by the roadside [1] highlighting the need for suitable places from which to unload and make deliveries. In response to growing pressures on kerbside space, recent developments have included the concepts of 'virtual loading bays', where operators can pay for timeslots to unload on restricted kerb space [43], and 'shared drop zones', where dedicated kerbside staff make 'last 500m' deliveries on behalf of operators [26]; however, both involve added costs for carriers.…”